(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - More people in Japan are supportive of Yasuo Fukuda’s cabinet this month, according to a poll by Kyodo News. 41.4 per cent of respondents approve of the prime minister’s administration, up 6.1 points since December.

In September 2007, Fukuda was elected as the new leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and officially sworn in as Japan’s prime minister, substituting Shinzo Abe. Fukuda served as chief cabinet secretary during the premierships of Yoshiro Mori and Junichiro Koizumi. He is also the son of former Japanese head of government Takeo Fukuda.

Fukuda retained many of Abe’s collaborators in the new Japanese cabinet. Nobutaka Machimura—who served as foreign minister under Abe—was appointed as chief cabinet secretary, Masahiko Komura is now in charge of foreign affairs, and Shigeru Ishiba has taken over as defence minister.

An election to renew half of the House of Councillors seats took place in July 2007. Final results gave the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) 60 of the 121 seats at stake, with the governing LDP winning 37 mandates. The opposition—with 137 seats—now holds a majority in the upper house of Japan’s Diet for the first time since the LDP was founded in 1955.

On Jan. 14, Japanese economy minister Hiroko Ota praised the national economic performance but warned about the perils of hiking prices for food and oil, saying, "The various price rises, including for food, are starting to affect consumer sentiment bit by bit."

Polling Data

Do you approve or disapprove of Yasuo Fukuda’s cabinet?

Source: Kyodo News
Methodology: Interviews with 1,027 Japanese adults, conducted on Jan. 11 and Jan. 12, 2008. No margin of error was provided.

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